Before They Read Teaching Language and Literacy Development through Conversations, Interactive Read-alouds, and Listening Games Cathy Puett Miller Before They Read: Teaching Language and Literacy Development through Conversations, Interactive Read-alouds, and Listening Games By Cathy Puett Miller © 2010 Cathy Puett Miller All rights reserved. Cover design: Studio Montage Book design: Marble Sharp Studios Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Miller, Cathy Puett. Before they read : teaching language and literacy development through conversations, interactive read-alouds, and listening games / Cathy Puett Miller. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-13: 978-1-934338-75-9 (pbk.) ISBN-10: 1-934338-75-3 (pbk.) 1. Language arts (Early childhood)--Activity programs. 2. English language-- Study and teaching (Early childhood)--Activity programs. I. Title. LB1139.5.L35M54 2010 372.6--dc22 2009040738 “Until Another Day,” copyright Jean Warren, can be found on the Preschool Express, www.preschoolexpress.com. Maupin House publishes professional resources for K-12 educators. Contact us for tailored, in-school training or to schedule an author for a workshop or conference. Visit www.maupinhouse.com for free lesson plan downloads. Maupin House Publishing, Inc. 2416 NW 71 Place Gainesville, FL 32653 www.maupinhouse.com 800-524-0634 352-373-5588 352-373-5546 (fax) [email protected] 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Dedication To the inspirational, innovative teachers who listen to their students, teach children rather than a curriculum and, as a result, turn children on to the powers and passion of reading. And to my son, Charlie, one of my greatest teachers in understanding how children learn. Table Of Contents Introduction A Few Big Ideas vii Chapter 1 Priming the Pump: The Overlooked Essentials of Preparing Children to Read 1 Chapter 2 Creating a Literacy-rich Classroom 15 Chapter 3 The First Essential: Secrets to “WOW” Conversations in the Classroom 25 Chapter 4 The Second Essential: Revisiting and Reinventing the Read-aloud 41 Chapter 5 The Third Essential: Listening to the Sounds of Words (the Basis of Phonological Awareness) 55 Chapter 6 An Introduction to Phonological Awareness AND More Games 67 Chapter 7 Moving to the Next Level: The Middle of the Pool 79 Final Word 89 Appendices Appendix A: Stages of Phonological Awareness Development 91 Appendix B: Shallow-to-Deep Progression 92 Appendix C: A-Hunting We Will Go Rhyming Words—More Rhymes for Activity #8 94 Appendix D: Great Rhyming Reads from (Activity #10) 95 Appendix E: Tongue Twisters for Every Letter of the Alphabet (Activity #16) 96 Appendix F: Read-aloud Books with Suggested Targets for Vocabulary and Concepts 97 Appendix G: List of Rhyming Word “Families” (Activity #10) 98 Professional References 100 Additional Resources 101 Introduction: A Few Big Ideas | vii Introduction A Few Big Ideas This Book Will Improve Your Teaching and Raise Your Students’ Assessment Scores “Children who Preschool and kindergarten teachers, this toolkit is for you. It is are immersed in designed to be a quick read or a pick-up resource that will make your job easier and your teaching more effective. Educators can also activities that use this book to facilitate in-school professional development on combine active early language and literacy learning. experiences, rich Within these pages, you will find references to core research in early conversations literacy. Just as important for your daily classroom, you will find carefully designed, easy-to-use ideas and activities for every segment and print-related of emergent literacy development. Beginning with the most activities are apt foundational skills, this book ends at the point children are ready to crack the reading/alphabetic code. to develop the “Why do I need anything else?” you might ask. “I have curriculum. foundational I have standards. I have a degree.” My answer is that we are learning skills required to new information about how children prepare to be readers every become day. No practicing teacher can keep up with it all. And no curriculum addresses the needs of all children. successful To be an effective teacher, you need a toolbox full of “What do I do readers and when…?” ideas, from trusted, experienced voices. The most dynamic writers .” and effective classrooms are full of those “tricks.” As you embed the —Dorothy Strickland, three ready-to-read foundations in your classroom, you will have Distinguished Research more children reach benchmarks and goals identified by your school, Fellow at the National school district, and state. You will have more children truly ready Institute for Early to read. Education Research Perhaps most importantly, this book will help you discern when the time is prime for each student to begin to read. While each is growing to that moment in time, you’ll have tons of ready-made activities to support them where they are. I purposefully address both preschool and kindergarten here for several reasons. One: you (and your students) will benefit immensely by having a wide variety of strategies beyond those strictly for your viii | Before They Read age/grade level. Understanding the “before and Dr. Marie Clay, creator of after” steps and expectations smoothes the path Reading Recovery and former for students. president of the International Reading Association, defines Also, kindergarten and preschool teachers have emergent literacy as “what the inimitable potential for building transition children know about reading partnerships. “In-the-trench” dialogues and and writing before they actually collaboration between preschool teachers and their learn to read and write in a counterparts in kindergarten improve results for conventional way.” It only makes both. The best part of such an alliance is that, sense that a child will be a with a consistent message, more children fall in better reader if he knows a lot love with language, reading, and books. If we about what reading is and what light that spark of literacy when they are young, it is for before he tries it himself. they will forever be readers. The Rush to Reading Dr. Robert Meyers (Child Development Institute, GET PARENTS INVOLVED CA) says, “We often expect children to think like In addition to the practical ideas adults when they are not capable of doing so.” for classrooms, through Nowhere is that statement truer than in our rush frequent sidebars like this, you for young children to become readers. I often hear will learn secrets for partnering parents of five-, four- or even three-year-olds ask with families (an essential and their child’s preschool teacher “When are you often neglected piece of the going to teach my child to read?” That same reading puzzle). The companion question is on the lips of most parents when title for families, Anytime children start school. Reading Readiness, offers even A constant diet of myths and sales pitches in more ways for families to join today’s media leads many of us as parents and you on this early literacy road. educators to believe that somehow earlier is always better. That’s a lie. Some statistical research indicates that the differences between those who read at an earlier age than when formal school begins and those who do not virtually disappears by the time children reach third grade. Even when we look beyond the statistics, it is more likely that children who read early at their own instigation do so as a result of a steady diet of rich experiences with language, text, and human interaction from birth. They are ready earlier because the foundations have been laid and they are developmentally ready (which happens at a different place for different children). Conversely, children pressured into reading before they are ready have a negative Introduction: A Few Big Ideas | ix early experience, which often hinders their literacy growth and may even color the rest of their school life. How do we counter such challenges? As educators in preschool and kindergarten, you are in a unique position to look at literacy with a panoramic view. We must seize children’s natural curiosity, watch for their internal “I’m ready” buttons, learn what they know and don’t know and what their home literacy is like, and then teach what they need at individual points in time. Three Essentials “Children are not Keep in mind as you gear up to make this your best teaching year little adults. We ever that young children learn holistically. The three essentials addressed in this guide—conversations, interactive read-alouds, and often expect listening games—mirror that holistic approach and apply whether children to think we are helping children with literacy, math, or social skills. like adults when Young children’s brains are primed to learn. Perhaps no aspect of they are not yet child development is as amazing as the progress of a young child’s brain. Researchers, such as Dr. Sally Shaywitz of Yale University, capable of doing have conducted extensive studies in this area in recent years. The so.” conclusion? A child’s brain is growing faster during the early years —Dr. Robert Meyers of than any other time in her life. the Child Development This growth surge creates a challenge for teachers. Institute, Orange, CA Dr. Reid Lyon, an internationally recognized education authority, says there is a window between TEACHER TIP the ages of five and seven when the under lying Dr. Hirsh-Pasek, co-author of skills of reading are most easily learned. “A the best-selling book, Einstein kindergarten teacher can accomplish in 30 minutes Never Used Flashcards, cautions what a fourth-grade teacher would need two hours us that accelerated, overly to do.” This book maximizes those efforts. structured academic programs, A young child learns differently. Only when the especially in preschools, do not proper foundations are established through have long-term positive effects.